


With the Wind

by tieria



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Day At The Beach, Epilogue, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-01 06:12:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15136865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tieria/pseuds/tieria
Summary: (They let the wind take them.)





	With the Wind

**Author's Note:**

> A very, very late entry for vrains week (of which I have more but. because I'm right in the middle of finals they'll probably become backlog for right now...)  
> The prompt was ideal ending, but I ended up writing an epilogue because my idea ending is: "everyone is happy and friends and has a Good Day because they all deserve it"

 

“Is that everything?”

The rustle of plastic bags. Searching hands, a pensive thought.

“Yep.”

A pause, the jingle of keys, hooked around a thumb and flipped until the proper one was caught between precise fingers.

“Are you sure? We’re not turning around once we get started.”

Steps echoing hollow through an empty space. Short taps against metal, twin doors slamming closed.

“If we forgot anything, we can pick it up on the way.”

Den City, falling far behind in the rearview mirror.

“Well, yeah,” Kusanagi said, navigating them smoothly onto the highway headed south of Den City, “but that defeats the point, Yusaku.”

“It’s a road trip. It means you’re supposed to pick things up on the way,” Yusaku replied, though he’d never been on a road trip and therefore had no idea what proper procedure was, save what Kusanagi had told him. Supposedly they’d been on plenty of trips as kids, though knowing Kusanagi, _plenty_ might have been just one.

“It doesn’t,” Kusanagi returned, “trust me.”

Yusaku sighed, but couldn’t protest. Instead he sunk lower into his seat and resigned himself to the roll of the scenery, plains on one side that gave way to forested hills on one side and the distant promise of the ocean obscured by cityside on the other. They chatted amicably when something came to mind, spent the rest in comfortable silence with only the radio lingering between them.

Then-

“I forgot,” Jin said, suddenly, lifting his head and staring straight through the windshield with more alarm than he usually showed.

“...What did you forget?” Yusaku said, with a sudden sense of dread. They’d been driving for no less than two hours and already he was beginning to feel the itch of sitting in the same place for too long. If they had to turn back, then Yusaku thought he might just get out of the car and sit on the side of the road until they came back.

“...Fireworks,” Jin replied, and the car let out a collective sigh.

“It’s fine,” Kusanagi said, “we can get them on the way.”

Yusaku glared at him, a look without bite. Kusanagi, glancing out at something in the mirror, didn’t notice- or at least he pretended not to as he switched lanes towards the exit ramp on their left. Yusaku wouldn’t put him above trying to feign nonchalance, but he wouldn’t press the issue. Not when he wanted to get around and walk a bit as much as any of them.

 

The rest stop was nice, as far as they went- a long strip of otherwise unremarkable concrete buildings, with a few food stalls selling takoyaki and grilled mochi and other little snacks nestled between. In the early morning hour the lot wasn’t yet crowded- a few campers, a few small cars that bleary-eyed businessmen were stumbling towards, and-

Yusaku blinked.

There was a girl sitting with a parasol atop the hood of a nice car, the sweeping white and gold design of it obscuring her from proper view. But still she was a familiar figure- Yusaku had grown used to seeing her, over the past year. He was confident that he knew who was sitting there.

“Aoi?”

The girl turned her head, twirling the parasol in her hands as she did- and, certainly, surprisingly- it really was her. Aoi blinked at him, surprised, then hopped neatly off the hood of the car, landing on her feet with a soft _tap_ of her flats against the pavement. “Yusaku? Why are you here?”

Yusaku waved a vague hand in the direction of Cafe Nagi. “Going on a summer trip. You?”

“My brother took his vacation days. We were going to go down to a warmer beach,” Aoi explained. Yusaku supposed that was fitting enough.

“You didn’t just fly?” Yusaku had always gotten the impression they’d had the money for it.

“Ema insisted that we go on a road trip. She says you find the best treasures, that way,” Aoi replied, not sounding terribly opposed to the idea. Yusaku got the sudden sense he knew how things had turned out. No one could stand in the way of both an Aoi and Ema that had made up their minds to insist on something.

Especially, he imagined, not Akira, who seemed to care for them both so dearly.

“Did you have a particular beach in mind?” The question caught him by surprise, his words flying from him before he could even think to try and clip their wings.

Aoi twirled her parasol around by the handle again, making the gold painted inside it sparkle gently. If she was surprised, she didn’t show it. “No. Well, I think Ema does. But she won’t tell us until we get there, apparently.”

“Then can you tell Ema that I know a nice one?”

“Is that an invitation?”

Yusaku turned at the sound of the voice, only half-unexpected- Ema had called with a friendly lilt to her voice, and met his gaze now with a wink and a dainty little wave with the hand not holding what Yusaku presumed to be a cup of coffee. Yusaku shrugged. He didn’t think their hosts would be terribly troubled to find more guests than expected. Not for a beach party.

Ema, taking this as affirmation, smiled over at him, then at Aoi. “Then I think we can make a little detour. What’s the location?”

 

There were two cars in their caravan, now, and anyone who saw them on the highway surely wouldn’t have thought them together- not the boxy camper-turned-food truck and the sleek black design of the Zaizen’s personal car.

But as they pulled off the highway, slipping closer and closer towards the seaside again and the rougher country roads that wove through farmland, there was no denying it. A few heads turned as they rattled their way down roads that certainly weren’t dirt but were certainly covered with enough of it that Yusaku could have been fooled as they slipped through the rice paddies into the town proper- not big enough to be called a _city,_ but certainly bustling enough that it was no countryside small town. The GPS on Kusanagi’s phone guided them steadily closer to their goal with every turn, pulling them up beside an old but cherished-looking home on the other end of the town.

Yusaku hopped out of the car first, glad to be back on his feet, and headed straight for the door. Behind him he sensed everyone else following, though he didn’t look back to check- just took a quick glance at the nameplate and pressed the doorbell.

He waited for a moment, then checked the nameplate again- given that the address had been _texted_ at him, he really wasn’t going to put it past Takeru to get it wrong- but after a moment and significantly more people trying to crowd into the shady overhang to get out of the midday sun, the door swung open.

“Yusaku?” Takeru said, squinting out at the veritable crowd that had gathered on his front steps, “This is more people than I think my grandparents know how to cook for.”

“I can help,” Shoichi volunteered, pointing over his shoulder at Cafe Nagi parked in their long driveway, “I brought an extra grill. It might not match up to some good family recipes, but I think I’ll do okay with barbeque.”

“I’m sure it’ll be delicious,” came a sudden voice, belonging to the head that poked out from behind Takeru. That, Yusaku thought, must have been Kiku. She certainly matched the photos Takeru had shown him over the months, novelty polaroids and photo booth strips sent old-school through the mail- _‘So you don’t have to brave the perils of e-mail,’_ Kiku had written across the back of one of them in curling script that Takeru had only acted a little mortified that Yusaku had seen. Given that he’d almost thrown Yusaku’s phone across the room, once, Yusaku figured that was a fairly good result.

“Cool,” said Takeru, “then, can you load some more stuff into the back of the van, or..?”

 

It took a while for them all to assemble again- Takeru and Kiku were apparently still in the middle of their preparations, and they slipped off after introductions were made to finish gathering their own supplies. Yusaku and Aoi were roped into the kitchen to help Takeru’s grandmother with the finishing touches of the bentou boxes she’d prepared- and in a quick glance, the both of them agreed to tell no one that they were both hopeless at cooking. Nothing came out burned beyond recognition, at least, so Yusaku thought that was good enough.

Once everything was prepared they piled into cars again and wove their way through the small but sprawling town down out to the beach. Wordlessly Yusaku followed Kusanagi to the back of the truck and helped him take out the grill to set near the covered benches at the very outskirts of the beach, Jin tagging along with arms overflowing with bags of hot dog buns- but at some point he paused, and Yusaku glanced back to find him.

He’d stopped over at the beach and was standing there, transfixed by something- not something he did often, but enough to send a little jolt of worry through Yusaku. After a quick glance at Kusanagi, he doubled back towards Jin, trying to look casual, knowing his worry would only make Jin more distressed- but as he drew up at Jin’s side, he realized that wasn’t the case at all. He’d stopped, certainly, still squeezing the hot dog buns tight, but the look in his eyes wasn’t lost.

Jin didn’t say a word, but something about him seemed brighter than usual, a little more alive- Kusanagi was right, Yusaku thought. Another trip was good for him.

“So this is the ocean, huh?” Yusaku said, standing at the edge of the beach and staring out towards the horizon as the last of the prep work finished up around them. Takeru came up behind him not a moment later, squinting out against the long rays of the afternoon sun.

“You have the ocean in Den City,” Takeru replied, nudging Yusaku in the shoulder and sending him tumbling an unsteady step to the side. Kiku rushed up to reach out to steady him before he could crash into Jin, flashing him a bright smile at his look of gratitude.

“It’s not the same,” Yusaku replied. Den City had no vast, open beaches- only small patches of sand and rocks that tumbled down cliffsides into the waves below. This was something endless. Though logically he knew it would end at some point- that he could get on a plane and land cleanly on the other side of this ocean- standing here, like this, he imagined that anyone who tried to cross would simply be lost.

“Nah,” Takeru agreed, “it’s not. Home’s always prettier, don’t you think?”

Yusaku didn’t know about prettier. But more comforting, certainly. He just nodded, and Takeru knocked their shoulders together playfully again.

“Now come on,” Takeru said, grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him towards the beach, “you’re going in first.”

“I’m not,” Yusaku protested- he hadn’t even changed into a swimsuit, yet- but quickly found he had no choice in the matter. Takeru threw him floundering into the water, Kiku behind him laughing too hard to chide, and all Yusaku could do in protest was glare at them with no bite. Behind them, Jin shook his head and headed off towards his brother getting the grill set up- but as he left, Yusaku swore that he saw him laugh.

 

The afternoon moved swift into evening; they ate an early dinner courtesy of the Homura family lunches and Kusanagi’s prowess at the grill. There was more than enough for seconds, and Yusaku, hungrier than usual with all the running around the afternoon had brought, found himself indulging. He brought his extra hot dog back to the blankets they’d set out and sat down, watching as the beach bustled with activity before him.

After a moment of thought, Yusaku took a picture and sent it quick to a name high on his contact list, then watched idly a moment as Ema leapt up to spike the volleyball down over the net, shooting right by Akira and down onto the sand. Ema cheered, and turned to Aoi beside her to give her setter a high five.

His phone buzzed ildy a few minutes later, notifying him of a new message. When he opened it, he was greeted with a picture of Ryoken standing behind a small portable grill, staring down too-intently at whatever was smoking atop it. He was lit with lantern light, soft and warm, and flitting about the background were blurred silhouettes whose identities Yusaku could make a good guess as to.

The message attached read, in familiar and proper speech-

_Ryoken is a bit busy at the moment. Though he says hello._

_Tell him I hope he’s not burning whatever dinner is supposed to be. And hi to you too, Spectre._

The next reply took a moment, but when it came, Yusaku could have laughed.

_Ryoken would like me to tell you that you’re formally uninvited from the next barbecue._

_Your barbecues are illegal anyway._

_And you enjoy them. Even over text you’re a terrible liar._

He wondered for a moment if Ryoken would read the conversation back, given that it was his phone, then decided he didn’t care and tapped out his reply.

_Ryoken will re-invite me._

_Unfortunately._

 

Yusaku almost laughed, but set aside his phone and flopped back on the blankets, throwing his arms behind his head and staring up at the last of the sunset as it bled from the sky. All his conversations with Spectre tended to end that way; for now it was as good a _goodbye_ as any.

Someone had brought out an old radio to set in the middle of the blankets- ostensibly it had been brought out to play music, but it had been tuned at some point to a station that did live coverage of duels in LINK VRAINS. Yusaku hadn’t been listening before, but he picked up Go’s name somewhere amongst it all, beneath the chattering of the group still at the grill.

For a moment he closed his eyes. He wasn’t tired- despite the long hours of travelling and the day spent under the sun, he had no intention of so much as dosing.

No _intention_ being the key word.

“Yusaku.”

He blinked awake from his half-dream of swimming in the ocean tomorrow to the sight of Kusanagi, handing him a fistful of sparklers- thankfully unlit. Yusaku sat up, then glanced around. While he had been sleeping, the sun had slipped in full over the horizon.

Down on the beach, Takeru was chasing Kiku around with no less than a dozen lit sparklers in one hand and a lighter in the other- a disaster waiting to happen. Their laughter echoed back, followed by the soft _fwump_ of someone hitting the sand and an even greater peal of it. Yusaku shook his head and decided he wanted no part of it. A safe distance away, someone- likely Ema, if Yusaku had to take a guess- had placed sparklers atop a massive sandcastle, _Zaizen_ written careful on the outskirts of its moat. Akira seemed to be chastising her; Ema didn’t appear to care. Behind Akira’s back, Aoi took a lighter to a few more placed atop its roof.

With a shake of his head Yusaku accepted the sparklers, and then Kusanagi’s proffered hand to pull him up. Together they headed over to the far side of the blankets, where Jin was doing the sensible thing and holding one stationary, crouching down and watching transfixed as it burned down in sparks of blue bright as the sky. Yusaku set the bulk of them down on the blanket, then held just one out before Kusanagi’s lighter. It burst to life in a sizzle and sparks of gold, warmer than they had any right to be. After a moment Kusanagi’s joined them, blinking to life in pink.

_It’s over,_ Yusaku thought, certainly not for the first time and very probably not for the last, _it really is all over._

Hanoi, SOL, _everything-_ Yusaku let out a breath, and felt something lift incrementally from his shoulders as he watched the sparklers burn bright through the dark, let the distant laughter wash over him.

It was over. And it felt _right._


End file.
